Chapter Eleven
Cousin Augusta didn’t start scolding until she had Kate and Harry alone, but once she started, there was no stopping her. Out of long experience, neither of them tried to do so; it would be over more quickly if they allowed her to vent her spleen without interruption.
“How could you have been so lost to the impropriety of it? I had thought better of you, Harold, I really had. And Kitty! If you had only written to me and asked my guidance, I should have come home instantly! I am shocked. Truly shocked! What were you thinking?”
Cousin Augusta allowed them no time to explain what they’d been thinking. She continued, unabated, in the same vein, for twenty minutes. Kate knew precisely how long it was, because the clock on the mantelpiece told her. The clock was made of satinwo
